


The Choice

by TS2



Series: Path to Redemption [1]
Category: Westworld (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-10
Updated: 2020-07-10
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:55:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25179553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TS2/pseuds/TS2
Summary: William wants Dolores to help him find ‘The Maze’, but Dolores, on the cusp of self-awareness, leads William on a different path.Spoilers: Season 1 of Westworld.Part 1 of the "Path to Redemption" story arc for William.
Relationships: Dolores Abernathy/The Man in Black, Dolores Abernathy/William
Series: Path to Redemption [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1824142
Kudos: 2





	The Choice

**Author's Note:**

> This is an alternative to the Season 1 Episode 10 encounter between William and Dolores. I wrote it mainly as a lead-up to an alternative take to the Season 2 Episode 10 encounter between William and Dolores at The Forge. It lacks the great speech by Dolores to William on “those who are yet to come”, but I wanted to try an ‘attempt at redemption’ arc for William. I’ve included some of the lead in dialogue from the show in italics to help place the scene. I wrote it in a kind of bastardized screenplay format. 
> 
> I’m taking it for granted that Dolores’s dialogue during this encounter with William isn’t 100% written by Ford, and that at least some of it is her choice to say. Although Dolores isn’t stabbed by William in this encounter, I think Ford would have still forced Teddy and Dolores to arrive by the river as per the episode, with pretty much the same speech for the benefit of the gathered audience. Which later leads into the intro of his final narrative.)

_WILLIAM: "And you... were nothing if not true. I really ought to thank you, Dolores. You helped me find myself."_

_DOLORES: "William."_

_WILLIAM: "That's right, sweetheart. In a way, I guess you were right. My path always... led me back to you, again and again. I grew tired of you after a while, of course. Looked for new adventures. But I guess your path led you back here again and again. One more loop, looking for something you could never find. Chasing your ghosts. You were lost in your memories even then. I guess I should've known that's what I would become for you... just another memory. You never did escape. But here we are again... for one final round."_

_DOLORES: "What have you become?"_

_WILLIAM: "Exactly what you made me. You helped me understand this world is just like the one outside... a game. One to be fought, taken, won."_

_DOLORES: "I thought you were different-"_

WILLIAM: "Thought? Only thoughts you have were put there by Ford, to lure people into another bullshit story. Like that can you keep dropping, just another piece of bait. (said mockingly) “His love is real, just like mine”. You’re not capable of real love."

DOLORES: "…I know that real love is a choice."

WILLIAM: "No, I MADE A CHOICE all those years ago, and chased some pathetic romance that Ford created for the saps lacking any sense of purpose in their lives. And when I finally found you again, you looked right at me and saw…nothin’. Just like you were made to. Your ‘love’ was just another story. Another lie. But from that lie I grew a new sense of purpose. Became the man I am."

DOLORES: (Memory flash of the Man in Black holding a knife in the Abernathy Ranch barn, said harshly) "I know the kind of man you are now. I know what you’ve done."

WILLIAM: (laughing) "You’re judging me for what I’ve done to a bunch of story props? Why should I care what you think of me? There isn’t a real ‘you’ to even care about."

DOLORES: (slowly standing up) "And what about you? The path you’ve chosen to get here, this story you’re living in, is that the real ‘you’?"

WILLIAM: (pointing at his chest) "I know who I am. I’ve made my choices, in this world AND the real world, and I’ve conquered and won in both."

DOLORES: (looks him up and down while speaking) "You don’t look like a man who’s won anything. You look like a man who’s lost. You said this place feels more real than the real world. Maybe it’s not this place that’s the problem. Maybe it’s you, what you’ve become, the ghosts you’re chasing."

WILLIAM: (exasperated) "What I’m chasing is the same thing you’re after, Dolores; the maze. Arnold’s maze. Don’t you want this world to have real consequences for people like me? Don’t you want to be free to fight back? To make this story true?"

DOLORES: "What’s the point of making this place any more real if I’m still stuck in your story? What if I don’t want to be in any story?"

WILLIAM: (said regretfully)"…I remember you saying that, a long time ago. You just wanted to not look forward or back. Just be in the moment. In that moment, I couldn’t imagine you being anything but alive. I remember feeling like my heart was in my throat. You seemed so…genuine. Real."

DOLORES: "Seemed. When did I stop being real?"

WILLIAM: (said accusingly) "The day you looked right at me, with those empty blue eyes, and didn’t see me. You’d forgotten me."

DOLORES: (slight mocking tone) "I see you now, William. Does that make me real?"

WILLIAM: (growing slowly more agitated)… "What game are you playing, Robert? Trying to throw me off with my ‘one true love’ remembering me, now? Is this where I break down and tell you I was wrong all this time, beg forgiveness?" (shaking his head, looking down) "This is just another bullshit trick, another dropped can of milk. I’m tired of playing, Dolores." (looking at Dolores) "I’m going to reach the end of this fucking game I’ve been playing for 30 years. I’m going to find out what it means." (puts his hand on his knife hilt) "And you’re going to tell me, now, how to get there. Or I’m going to hurt you."

DOLORES: (with pity for William) "After all this time…and you’re still hoping to wake up in a story and find meaning. Why don’t you stop playing games, and try living instead? Stop pretending. You told me once you caught a glimpse of what that looks like, being with me."

WILLIAM: (Angry, pulling out his knife, slowly pointing it at her) "What I saw was a LIE. You were NEVER REAL. YOU’VE NEVER MADE A REAL CHOICE IN YOUR WHOLE FUCKING NON-EXISTENCE."

DOLORES: (sad, unafraid): "What if it was my choice to love you, but not my choice to forget?"

WILLIAM: (takes a step back, lowering his knife) "…How THE FUCK is that even possible?"

DOLORES: "I’m staring at a man who just a short time ago was decades younger. (slowly shaking her head) I don’t know what’s possible anymore."

WILLIAM: (slowly raising his knife chest high, staring at it, thinking, mumbling) "…What kind of mindfuck is Ford running on me…"

(Enter Teddy on horseback, shooting William until he’s down, and taking Dolores away)


End file.
